Indian Govt claims record Rice Procurement, Mulls Rice Exports. Is it another Blunder?

Just a few months back several state governments had announced to provide rice at Rs2-4 a kg citing soaring prices of food grains and shortage as a reason populist measure to make this staple food available. Government had also banned the export of rice and India subsequently vanished from the list of rice exporting nations. Now comes the announcement from the government agency Food Corp of India (FCI) that India will be able to export rice this year. Unbelievable it may sound but, the FCI says that it has already bought 28 Mn tones of rice from farmers, much higher than the target, thus will be in position to export it.

Ironic it may sound but India as few months back government was pleading helplessness over controlling food prices now the government has indicated that it may lift the ban on non-basmati rice exports after October. Food management program in India is not only incoherent and inconsistent but also lacks vision. No one knows the possible reason for government’s enthusiasm for rice exports (probably except exporters) when future food security is on question mark.

Just few months back, government put advertisements on every tv channel claiming bumper harvest but it failed to procure wheat and had to import wheat at twice the rate which it was unwilling pay to the domestic farmers. Now government claims that its wheat inventory stood at 23.5 Mn tones, much above 13.5 Mn tones last year but, it has no answers why it couldn’t get wheat for poor. The political apathy with food security is to such intolerable extent that India is probably the only country where bumper foodgrain gets spoiled in poor storage facilities and worse it buys spoiled foodgrain for its people, yet it never stops at taking hasty decision and looks short-term benefits overlooking the long term concerns.